The couple first worked together in 1992's Jamon Jamon, and have collaborated several times since, most recently in Woody Allen's 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Written by The Road author Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor centres on an attorney badly in need of money (Fassbender) who becomes involved in cocaine trading on the Mexican border. Bardem plays a rich friend with whom he joins forces, and the pair become involved with a "shady type" played by Pitt.